WICB/JCA Grassroots programme gets going in Portmore

ST Catherine, Jamaica — Over 20 youngsters from various communities in the sunshine city of Portmore turned out at the Bridgeport Sports Club for the first day of the WICB/JCA Grassroots cricket clinic.

The boys and girls were put through a number of fielding and catching drills under the guidance of coach Hugh Hinds and assistant coach Kirk McKenzie.

The youngsters were drawn from the neighbouring Bridgeport Primary School, Naggo Head Primary, as well as high schools Kingston College, Campion College and St Catherine High.

With Saturday, February 1 being the first of the eight-week programme, Hinds focused on skim catches and casual ground field to get the programme off and running.

“We have some of the youngsters coming back, as well as we have a number of newcomers. We decided that we would start the programme with some catching and fielding fundamentals to improve their hand-eye co-ordination and the children have definitely enjoyed that aspect of the training.”

Hinds added that as the programme progresses he will be implementing other aspects of training.

“Because we are dealing with children ages seven to 13 you have to keep them occupied and engaged at all times, so we will let them have a little knockabout cricket game in the last half-hour of the training just to let them have some fun.”

With half the participants being new to the programme, next week the coaching staff will be teaching the young boys and girls proper bat grip technique as well as proper stance.

“Some of the kids here have never played cricket before, so we will have to teach them everything from scratch. My assistant Kirk McKenzie has been doing a great job with the little ones and we are of the view that if we can get just one of these kids carrying on playing the game we would have succeeded.”

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WICB/JCA Grassroots programme gets going in Portmore

Grass-roots Football Programme moves to a higher level

Sport

Saturday, September 14, 2013

The Digicel/Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) Grassroots Programme moves to a higher level when the 18th festival moves to the Three Hills Community Football field in St Mary today.When the JFF announced the programme, which is aimed at introducing the rudiments of the game to children aged 6-12, it indicated that the programme would have four components:1 The staging of festivals in all parishes, targeting 100 children at each. To date, 17 festivals have been held with over 2,000.2 The staging of coaching education workshops aimed at teaching coach educators, at the parish level, the best means of imparting the basics of the game to this age group. To date, over 500 coach educators across the island have been involved in these workshops.3 The appointment of Grass-roots coordinators in each parish. All parishes have recently appointed a Grass-roots coordinator.4 The provision of equipment to the parishes to facilitate a continuous Grass-roots programme at the parish level.Today, the first stock of equipment will be handed over to the St Mary FA at the end of the festival, which is scheduled to begin at 1:30 pm. It is expected that the parishes will use the equipment to have small festivals.The JFF had made representation to FIFA for some assistance with Grassroots equipment and FIFA recently approved an allocation to the JFF.

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Grass-roots Football Programme moves to a higher level